RE: Reprise of the panel layout proposal

["Jared White" <jwhite sonic net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnome-gui-list-admin gnome org
> [mailto:gnome-gui-list-admin gnome org]On Behalf Of Kevin Cullis
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 10:41 PM
>
> Jared White wrote:
> >
> > OK, here are a couple images illustrating what I mean. It's nothing very
> > graphically fancy, but I hope you all get the idea. These tabs
> could either
> > drop-down upon being clicked, or maybe drop-down with half-second
> > click-hold. Dragging a tab would move the tab left and right
> along the top
> > edge of the screen, so people could position the tabs wherever
> they like. I
> > don't know about an "auto hide" type of thing for the tabs, but
> I suppose
> > something could be worked out.
>
> Apple had a similar idea except you dragged a Window down to the lower
> edge and it created the tab of the window with clicking on the tab
> bringing the window out while clicking again closed it.  I personally
> liked the idea for frequently used items, it would also reduce the
> "icon" clutter of apps/etc.  However, it takes up screen real estate,
> but it is a nice option.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that -- I'm not too familiar with Mac OS prior to
OS X. However, what you discribed was how you can make a normal Finder
window into a window that will slide out from the screen edge when you click
on its tab. This is somewhat similar, except that this is more of a
menu-type widget that slides out. It's basically a way to be able to have
two or three menus be always accessible without having a large bar getting
in the way.

> What I would like to see is an easier way to add stuff to the menus like
> Apple has done.

Like Apple has done with what....the classic Apple menu?

You know, maybe something like this exists already, but what *I'd* like to
see is a way to create a launcher button for a running program
automatically. In other words, if I'm running "MySwellApp", and I want to
create a button that will launch it upon being clicked, I could just drag
"MySwellApp" from some kind of running tasks menu onto the launch bar -- or
maybe click on a button somewhere that would create a launcher button for
the foreground app. This would make it really easy to create launcher
buttons for all your favorite programs. The Dock in Mac OS X has a similar
feature -- you can either drag a running program icon to somewhere else in
the Dock to make it "stick", or you can bring up the little pop-up menu for
that icon and select "Keep in Dock". This makes for very handy customization
capabilities.

Anyway, it's getting late, so I think I'll sign off for now. There's been
some really good discussion here lately, IMO, so I hope the GNOME head
honchos are listening! ;)

Take care,

Jared